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With the year in music winding down, we reached out to some of your favorite guitarists to find out what music and gear rocked their worlds in 2012. Below, Periphery's Misha Mansoor fills us in on his five favorite pieces of gear in 2012.

Last year, Periphery released their sophomore album, Periphery II, which landed at No. 3 on our list of the top 50 albums of 2012.

Fractal Audio AxeFx II

"With the new version 9 update, you get 13 new amps, improved dynamics and feel and the tone is at a whole new level. This sounds like an amp moving air on a recording. For those who tour a lot, record a lot, or just like to jam a lot and have extreme versatility with the highest quality effects and amp modeling available, this is the greatest thing ever."

Bareknuckle Pickups Black Hawk Set

"This is the pickup of choice for those players who want a compressed and aggressive dynamic out of a pickup with no cost to the incredible note definition and clarity that I have come to expect from BKP pickups."

Darkglass B7K Pedal

"Okay this is bass gear, but having this in the mix seriously makes your guitars sound better. The ultimate bass overdrive."

Zilla 2x12 Fatboy cab

"This cab sounds absolutely massive. And it's all focused in the low mids where it counts, as in the usable frequencies. If you tune low you will appreciate how well this handles the tunings and how tight it manages to be even when handling low frequencies. The top end is clear and smooth and the mids are pushed to cut through the mix. They make a 4x12, but if you had a blindfold on, I wouldn't be surprised if you thought this was it."

Toontrack EzMix 2

"This is the best easy mixing solution out there. Want to focus on the creative side of things without having to worry about the mix? Perhaps you just want to write on the road and not need external gear. Or maybe use it to track DI guitars and not have to mirror edit. This inexpensive piece of software is a game-changer for sure."